What a win last week! Great pressure, great coverage, and Jalen Hurts played out of his mind. Every Eagles fan should have some optimism heading into this Week 2 matchup. It will not be easy; the Niners themselves came off of an impressive 41-33 (nice score) win over the lowly Detroit Lions. But that game will not tell you that Detroit rattled off 23 unanswered points to almost upset the 2019 NFC champions. So how can the birds finish the job? Keep reading to find out.
Tackle and Contain
One negative takeaway from last week’s game was the first quarter run defense. Tackling was a visible issue. I saw Genard Avery get tripped by nothing one play. Kyle Shannahan and this 49ers offense is built on running the ball/short gimmicky plays to the receivers that are effectively running plays. The loss of Raheem Mostert will not deter them as rookie Elijah Mitchell had a hell of a game in relief last week. Mitchell, Trey Sermon, and Deebo Samuel all are huge threats with the ball in their hands on quick throws. The Eagles must, and I mean MUST bring them down as soon as they get the ball, or else they will rattle off huge plays against us. I need not remind you of what Brandon Aiyuk did to poor Marcus Epps last year.
Pass Protection
This 49ers defense is banged up everywhere. They, unfortunately, lost CB1 last week Jason Verrett along with OLB Dre Greenlaw. The Eagles easily can take advantage of whoever lines up across Devonta Smith, but they need to have the time to do it. Nick Bosa and Arik Armstead will be healthy, and they are much better than any Falcons pass rusher. Jalen Hurts was able to get away with rolling out of the pocket last week against a weak defensive front, but I do believe that he would have that same kind of success against this team. Mailata and Seumalo must prove that last week was the start of their breakout seasons, and not outliers. We can only take advantage of this beat up defense if we don’t get beat by their best healthy starters.
Neutralize Kittle
Last time we played the 49ers, Nick Mullens and C.J. Beathard of all people had 338 yards through the air against us. How did that happen? All thanks to the performance of one George Krieger Kittle. Kittle had 15 catches for 183 yards and a TD plus another 8 yards rushing. Oh, and this was all on a bad ankle. Now fully healthy and ready to bounce back, the eagles must get creative in stopping him somehow. No matter which QB is playing at any given moment, Kittle will be the top down the field target. We were able to stop freak-of-nature Kyle Pitts last week from doing anything relevant, but Kittle is a whole new monster. If I am Johnathan Gannon, I am losing sleep thinking about him. We can’t rely on the heorics of Travis Fulgham this year, so we need to stop Kittle using everything we got.
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Jish Sokolsky is a featured writer at The Birds Blitz. For more from Jish, check out his archive and read through our Eagles articles for the latest news about the Birds.
